Saturday, September 24, 2011

Pollock-inspired funky 18th birthday cake/cupcake ensemble

We were approached by a young lady whom we know very well to make her 18th birthday cake - 1 week before her birthday! Note: we do not encourage late requests. But this future pilot is someone we simply cannot say 'no' to. She asked for Colour, Caramel, and a Candice figurine topper... we spent two nights bothered by the fact that we normally shy away from colour and we've never done caramel before.

Lucky for Candice, Kenneth (the third and often unmentioned Sweet Art Cake persona - our cake engineer extraordinaire and husband to Joy) has recently been fascinated by American abstract painter Jackson Pollock's 'drip' technique. You can read more about the artist here. We took Kenneth's interest on board, and here's our Pollock translation:

To us, this cake has the perfect personality to match THE Candice that we know - vivacious, strong-willed, fun, and full of passion for life! We hope that our attempt to represent her through the personalized figurine has been a success

(we're convinced so - and here's why):

... checkout the eyebrows...

... the full lashes...

... and the generous smile!

After building the cake (4 layers of white chocolate mud-cake, alternated with a layer of creamy caramel filling and white chocolate butter cream frosting), we debated whether or not to use the same Pollock technique to design the 18 cupcakes to go with the cake.